Power Play (Crimson Romance) (21 page)

She watched his hand envelop hers. “I know now that you were telling the truth about the woman in your hotel room. Why didn’t you tell me it was Billy’s daughter?”

“Would it have made a difference?”

No, perhaps not. She’d been so hurt, so blind, for so long. She’d been so very stupid.

Her fingers fluttered against his palm. “I love you, Cahal.”

“Nice time to remember it.”

A dent appeared to soften the harsh planes of his cheek and her free hand traced it.

“I never forgot it. Not for a single minute.”

At the slight pressure of her grasp, he lowered his head until their foreheads touched. “Is that why you came to me today, in spite of what you thought I did?”

It was a difficult thing to admit, to let go of her pride.

“Yes.”

“Baby.” His voice altered, becoming warm and low. “I love you so much. I would never look at another woman, much less love one.”

She asked him, “Why couldn’t you have convinced me of that two years ago?”

“I tried, if you remember. I was boxing shadows. I wasn’t sure about the identity of your source of information. If I’d known that it was my cousin all along … ” Breaking off, he swallowed before he continued. “I suspected something was up with him but I wanted you to trust me and I couldn’t believe that you would accept anything he told you.”

Lila moved her hand from his face. “I should have trusted you. I-I’m sorry.”

“Don’t apologize,” he told her. “I was wrong, too. Against my better judgment, I believed some of things my cousin told me. I started to see how you could be ashamed of me. After we separated, the life you chose was so different, as if you were rejecting everything we shared together.”

“I was never ashamed of you,” Lila said. “I thought you were unsatisfied with me. I’m not a former model or gymnast. I’m nothing special.”

“Aren’t you?” her husband asked before crushing his mouth to hers.

The kiss was devouring, fierce with the pent-up longing of the past year and the need for unity long teased out but ultimately denied. When he lifted his fair head, Cahal was breathing hard and Lila experienced a sharp stab of pleasure

“You are so special, my darling. You’re my wife and the only woman I’ve ever loved.”

Lila’s eyes misted. He’d never been vocal with his declarations and this choked rasp was heavy with the depth of his feelings. His hand shook as he caressed the length of her arm.

“Then why didn’t you want to have children?”

He stopped moving his hand as a long pause turned into a longer silence.

“Cahal?”

He took a deep breath. “The truth is, Lila, that I was selfish. I had so little time with you during the season that I wanted every minute to myself and I knew that a child would divide even that time by at least half.”

“And now?”

After asking the question, she held her own breath.

He smiled. “And now that my retirement from hockey is right around the corner I think we might want something small and cute to fill our time.”

Hitting his shoulder, she said, “You’d better not be talking about getting a puppy.”

Threading his fingers through her dark hair, he kissed her again.

“No, darling, I’m thinking about a baby for us to share our love with.”

But Lila was realistic. “That would be lovely,” she said, “but I would be happy either way, sharing my love with you.”

Cahal hauled her closer for a long hard kiss.

Nan Comargue writes contemporary and erotic romance. She
lives in Toronto, Canada and has been reading romance novels since she could read.
She blogs at
http://nancomargue.blogspot.ca/
and can be found on Twitter at
@NanComargue
.

In the mood for more Crimson Romance?

Check out
The Marrying Kind
by Judith Anne McCarthy
at
CrimsonRomance.com
.